


Merle Lover's Haven

by RockemSockem



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 18:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11903760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockemSockem/pseuds/RockemSockem
Summary: Sometime after the end, Davenport and Merle meet up and have a few drinks and talk about when Davenport had forgotten everything. A question about a certain wink is asked.





	Merle Lover's Haven

He always sent postcards. 

It had been over a year; the last time Merle saw Davenport was at Carey and Killian's wedding, which was great. Really great, they all had fun. But the only hide or hair of Davenport he’d seen other than that since they beat the Hunger was postcards.

So it was that when Davenport walked into _Vine Lover’s Haven_ and pulled up a chair across from Merle, it was a total surprise. But a good one.

"Buddy! If I'd known you were coming I'd have gotten this place to throw you a welcome party." 

Davenport smiled. "Maybe you would have known if you ever checked your stone of farspeech, Merle." 

"...Ah.” Merle looked sheepish for approximately the length of one whole second before he waved it away. “Well, it doesn't matter now! You're here! Order a drink! C'mon." 

"Don't mind if I do," said Davenport as Merle waved over the server, "how's the Earl life treating you?" 

"Good, good. They love me, you know." 

"Everybody loves you, Merle." 

Merle chuckled awkwardly, feeling his face go red. "So, what's with the visit? Just in the neighbourhood or...?" 

"Kind of." Davenport pulled out a bag of holding and started rifling through it. "I've been travelling - - you've gotten the postcards, right? I was heading to an island off the coast that's supposed to have an abandoned dragon horde on it and since I was passing by _anyway_ I thought I'd drop in." 

"Well I'm glad you did! Those postcards have been real neat. I like the one with the thing - you know the thing...?" 

Davenport went "aha!" and pulled out a deck of tarot cards. "Fancy a game for old time’s sake?"

"Yeah!" 

They played, but unlike so many years before, they didn’t stay silent. Davenport explained what The Thing Merle had plum forgotten was and went on to tell him all about his travels, between asking how Merle was doing. He just kept talking about anything and everything, never allowing the silence to linger.

After a while of this, Merle laughed and said, "Well aren't you the chatterbox!" 

Davenport smiled a bit sadly. "Yeah, well, it's nice to be able to be one." 

Merle looked up at him over his cards, slightly more sharply than before. "Yeah that.... Those years must've been hard for you." 

"Not at the time. I couldn't remember enough to know what was missing. After, though..." 

"You talked to her about it?"

"What, Lucretia? Oh yeah," he sighed a little, "We've had a couple of _long_ talks about it."

"Noticed you didn't rejoin the Bureau of Benevolence after that." 

"No, I did not." Davenport's tone was uncharacteristically hard, but after a moment he played his turn and then softened. "What happened _happened_ and we all survived and beat the Hunger. That's the important thing. She... I dunno, Merle. I don't know if I can forgive her, maybe one day - - but I can't hate her. I don't want to dwell on it anymore. I'm happy _now_. Gods, I was happy _then_ \- I just didn't know any better not to be." 

Merle nodded along. "I think it's time to move on."

"I think so too." 

They played for a little while longer and drank a bit more. Eventually Davenport won, and they'd cheered up since then. 

Merle, never a sore loser, got up and told the entire bar that Davenport was an amazing Captain and stand-up guy. It was the penalty for losing but he meant every word. The patrons all cheered loudly; they all knew who Davenport was and they all agreed. 

Davenport was laughing. He wiped his eyes for a moment and as Merle sat down he gave him a small wink. "Good job." 

"You earned it," said Merle, but the wink made him remember something. He snapped his fingers. "Hey, that reminds me - I was gonna ask ya something about before, when you were... y’know. That is, if you wanna answer! I’m not gonna twist your arm." 

Davenport looked at him curiously. "... Sure? What’s up?" 

Merle took a deep breath and launched into it. "Whenever we were on the moon I'd keep running into you. Sometimes I even caught you watching from bushes. It was kind of creepy, honestly." He chuckled a little. "And then there was that time you winked at me - - what? What's wrong?" 

While he had talked, Davenport looked increasingly mortified and red, scrunching up his moustache and fidgeting nervously with his hands. 

"What'd I say?" 

Davenport bit his lip. "I should've known you'd notice." 

Merle leaned forward, confused. "Notice what? At the time I thought you had the hots for me but - -" 

Davenport buried his face in his hands.

"...What? C'mon, Captain, what's the deal?" Merle had never seen him so embarrassed, even in a hundred years. 

The rest of the bar had gone hushed as more and more people drunkenly eavesdropped on them. Even the server had paused while passing, tray of drinks in hand. 

Through his hands, Davenport mumbled, "You were right."

With great effort he pulled his face out from his hands, regained his composure and smiled at Merle. "See, I couldn't remember who you were but... the voidfish could only make people forget what Lucretia wrote in her journals. I forgot so, so much, but there was some things I kept. One thing that I, uh. I never confided in her. I never confided in anybody." 

Merle squinted at him. "What are you getting at...? "

Davenport scratched his cheek as the rest of the bar waited in breathless silence. "I, uh, I thought that since I was Captain it wouldn't be appropriate... so I never told you about my _massive_ crush on you." He grinned nervously. “And since Lucretia didn't know either, my feelings didn't get erased. I didn't understand _why_ I felt the way I did but... every time I saw you on the moon my heart would start racing. And I knew I really, really liked you for... for some reason so I, uh, I kind of followed you around? I didn’t realize I’d creep you out..."

As Davenport trailed off, Merle just stared at him in stunned silence. The server's hand shook with the weight of the tray but she didn't move. Nobody did. 

Merle opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again pointed at himself and said, "Me?!"

"Yeah, you." 

" _This whole time_?" 

"Yeah." 

"Why didn't you say anything?!" 

Davenport looked slightly defensive. "I told you, I was Captain --" 

"No, I mean _since_ then! We've already missed so much time and you wasted a whole year?!" 

Davenport blinked at him. "What?" 

Merle got up and grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his chair. "C'mon, let's go make up for lost time." 

"What, really?" Davenport smiled so widely that tears prickled his eyes.

Merle started to lead him out of the bar. "Yeah! Let's make out for a week." 

Davenport, by this point, was deep red. "W-wait, we haven't paid for our drinks!" 

The big, burly bartender, who had stopped serving anyone at the bar any drinks and had shushed them if they had tried, lifted his voice and said loudly, "DRINKS ARE ON TH' HOUSE." 

The entire bar nodded furiously along. One guy even called out, "I'll tip Janice for you!" Everybody immediately chorused in agreement.

Merle waved to them. “Thanks, guys!” He blew them a kiss.

Immediately everybody started talking at once. “Get it, Merle!” “You snog the _fuck_ out of him, Davenport!” 

“Oh my gods,” said Davenport, but he couldn’t stop smiling as Merle dragged him out of the bar and into the future.


End file.
